Post WWI & the Roaring Twenties Chapters 19 & 20

Objectives: Identify how the US demobilized after World War I? – Evaluate the impact of demobilization, including the farm crisis, labor unrest, the Red Scare, and racial intolerance.

Demobilization: Soldiers returned to workforce Unemployment rose Wages fell; working conditions worsened Women lost jobs Wartimes shortages left prices high; then market flooded Farm crisis

Farm Crisis U.S. farmers lost markets in Europe Agri. efficiency increased=more food produced = lower prices = farming is less prosperous = many lost farms to bank

Unionization A. Philip Randolf—Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Pullman Co. didn’t recognize union til 1930s

Labor strikes Boston Police Strike Steel Strike United Mine Workers Strike Seattle General Strike (all workers)

Coal Miners: :United Mine Workers

Red Scare: Period of anti- communist hysteria – fear of Bolshevik Revolution – fear of immigrants and labor unions

Palmer Raids: Nov summer 1920 Response to mail bombs Gov’t. office created to gather info on radicals & activists Poor immigrants targeted & arrested

A. Mitchell Palmer J. Edgar Hoover

Alexander Berkman Mollie Steimer Emma Goldman These three people were deported to Russia!

Socialist Party in America: Eugene Debs Collective ownership of industry

Nativism law est. quotas for immigration National Origins Act of set quotas for each 2% of the number of people from that country currently living in the U.S.

Sacco & Vanzetti Trial 2 Italian immigrants, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, convicted of murder & sentenced to death (Probably a Mistake!)

Postwar Intolerance

Return of the KKK: Officially dissolved after Reconstruction 1915, Stone Mtn, GA--Joseph Simmons re- establishes Klan

Kidnappings, lynchings, beatings Grew outside of South Discriminated against Jews, Catholics, immigrants, radicals Huge membership

Anti-Lynching Campaign Began by the NAACP – Create anti lynching committee – The Crisis – Limited success

Racial Tensions Lynchings Rebirth of the Klan

African American Migration North: (Great Migration) Reasons: – Economic opportunities – Sharecropping=de facto slavery – Less discrimination Results: – Violence erupts – Chicago riots

Cause: Eugene Williams, Age 17 - Drowned at 29th St. beach, due to exhaustion on account of being unable to come to land due to throwing of stones during riot between whites and African Americans, over use of said beach. One of the rioters, who was accused of having thrown a stone which supposedly struck deceased and caused his drowning, was indicted by on charge of manslaughter.

Whites wielding bricks chasing blacks in a Chicago neighborhood, 1919.

Black Nationalism Pan Africanism – Unite ppl of Afr. descent worldwide – Marcus Garvey – Black nationalism—new political state in Africa – Universal Negro Improvement Assoc. Foster econ. Independence Est. homeland in Africa

Let’s Review: How did the US demobilize after World War I? – How did this impact farmers? – How did this impact labor unions? What was the Red Scare? – What caused this fear? – Who was targeted by this scare? What were race relations like after the War?

Objectives: Discuss the Republican decade. Discuss the impact of the automobile. Identify changing consumer habits. Discuss & evaluate changes in 1920s society including the Scopes Trial, the Lost Generation, Prohibition and the Harlem Renaissance.

Republican Presidency

Election of 1920: Republican: Warren G. Harding Democrat: James M. Cox

1920 Election

Harding Administration Positive effects: – Economic growth Boom in industry Cut gov. spending Tax cut for rich Reduced debt Fordney- McCumber tariff Negative effects: – Mergers – Struggle for workers, farmers, & labor unions

Harding Scandals: Ohio Gang – corrupt officials in Harding Admin.-- most from OH, Harding’s home state Forbes Scandal – Forbes takes money from Vet. Bureau Attorney Gen. Daugherty – taking bribes Teapot Dome Scandal – Fall takes control of oil reserves & profits

Calvin Coolidge Takes over after Harding dies in office: – Wins 1924 election – Probusiness – Revenue Act of 1926 – Cut gov. spending – Opposed helping farmers & common laborers

Election of 1928 Republican: Herbert Hoover Democrat: Alfred E. Smith

Henry Ford Mass production Assembly line Age of the automobile

Effects of the Automobile Linked rural & urban areas (growth of suburbs) Use of trains & trolleys reduced Auto-touring Social opportunities for teens Reduced sense of community

New consumer practices Installment plans New materials & designs Advertising Retail chain stores

1920s Lifestyles “new woman” – sought social & economic independence College enrollment tripled New fashions

New leisure activities – Dance marathons – Flagpole sitting

Lost Generation War was devastating & useless College life was superficial Pursuit of wealth & status led to emptiness Middle-class life was empty & required conformity

Mass culture/Pop culture Radio, books, magazines

Movies, sports Celebrities & heroes

Jazz & Blues Originated in South Spread nationwide when musicians moved North White musicians too Jazz clubs & big bands

The Jazz Age

Society Americans had divided opinions about social change – Traditional religious values v. New values based on scientific thought – Scopes Trial Questions of appropriate and inappropriate movies & music – censorship

The Moral Question

Scopes Trial :Evolution v. Creationism “Monkey Trial” Dayton, TN

John Scopes, teacher Clarence Darrow, his attorney William Jennings Bryan, prosecutor

Prohibition Increased crime – Bootlegging – Speak easies

Prohibition

Gangsters/The Untouchables

Prohibition, Gangsters, & the Liquor Business

Harlem Renaissance

Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, was the center of the African American political, cultural, and artistic movement in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Harlem Renaissance Source of pride for African Americans New respect for black theater Celebration of ethnic identity Exposure of African American struggles

Louis Armstrong Duke Ellington

Langston Huges & Zora Neale Hurston Josephine Barker

Cross by Langston Hughes My old man’s a white old man And my old mother’s black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I’m sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack. I wonder where I’m going to die, Being neither white nor black?

James Weldon Johnson Claude McKay

America by Claude McKay Although she feeds me bread of bitterness, And sinks into my throat her tiger’s tooth, Stealing my breath of life, I will confess I love this cultured hell that tests my youth! Her vigor flows like tides into my blood, Giving me strength erect against her hate. Her bigness sweeps my being like a flood. Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state, I stand within her walls with not a shred Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer. Darkly I gaze into the days ahead, And see her might and granite wonders there, Beneath the touch of Time’s unerring hand, Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

William H. Johnson Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 1939

Jacob Lawrence Dust to Dust (The Funeral) 1938

Jacob Lawrence Harlem Rooftops

Palmer Hayden, The Janitor Who Paints, 1937

Street Life, Harlem, by William H. Johnson JeunesseJeunesse by Palmer Hayden

Palmer Hayden

Let’s Review: Who were the Republican presidents of the 1920s? What impact did the automobile have on American society? How did consumer habits change in the 1920s? What was the Scopes Trial about? Who were the Lost Generation? What effect did Prohibition have on American society? What was the Harlem Renaissance?